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I know Christmas is over, but I just managed to put the finishing touches on these and I couldn’t wait 300-and-some-odd days to share them with you. I really wanted to play with air-dry clay this past season, but I couldn’t find any in white very easily. What I did find (at Target) is this modeling compound by Crayola called Model Magic. The package said it was air-dry so I brought it home to give it a try. Do you […]

I wonder if any of you Target/Fixer Upper fans recognize the components used to make this bell hanger. Both the bell and the ribbon are from Magnolia’s Hearth & Hand collection for Target. That bell is so unique, isn’t it? It occurred to me after I brought it home that its shape made it the perfect kind of bell to hang from a door handle. I based the design of the hanger shown above on a favorite Christmas decoration that […]

Hello chickens. If I’m counting right today is the sixth day of Christmas. I hope the season has gone well for you and that you’ve gotten in a craft or two to help you celebrate (assuming you’re the kind of person who enjoys that kind of thing). My holiday workshop didn’t include everything on my list, but I got to a few of them and that’s good enough for me. After all, where does it leave you if you are […]

This was inspired by a favorite decoration that I bring out every year – a lovely little bell that hangs from a doorknob on a bit of stuffed ribbon. Every time you use the door the bell rings. And bells are so nice to hear at Christmas time. I didn’t have any real bells (and was not inclined to go looking for them), but I did have a nice collection of little jingle bells that I decided to knit right […]

This is my bride from our Halloween display. She was going to be headless (Headless Hildegard), but once I found her styrofoam head at Jo-Ann’s I changed my mind about that. There was something about this styrofoam head that enchanted me. Now the other day I was flipping through some magazines at Barnes and Noble and I spied a male styrofoam head in a holiday living room shot that had suckers stuck into it. That head was not at all […]

Hello out there. Christmas is right around the corner now, isn’t it? I thought I would be so organized this year. If only I had a butler and some other household staff I’m sure I’d feel more ready for the holidays. The one thing I have managed to do is pick up some redwood cones from the backyard and dip them in a small jar of liquid gold leaf that I picked up at Michaels. The beauty of the redwood […]

Can it really be January 2 already? Do you find this time of year bittersweet? I do. The holiday season drawing to a close, the sense of time passing, saying good-bye to family to return to school or work or whatever you do the rest of the year, taking down the tree. But I am grateful for an exceptional holiday season that began with Thanksgiving at my sister’s house, included a Christmas trip to LA to visit with some of […]

I painted them, papered them, and beaded them, but this star is my favorite and my best. These are more paper mache items from Michaels. I decorated the star in the same way I decorated the Easter egg you can see here. You don’t have to use a foreign language magazine for your decoupage, but I sure love the results I get from the Chinese magazine I keep cutting into. I used the same hemp cord shown in that decoupage […]